Teddy Riner and Marie-Josee Perec watch as the Olympic cauldron is raised in a hot air balloon during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
PARIS — On Friday night, it was still up in the air who would light the Olympic cauldron for the 2024 Paris Olympics (spoiler alert: Marie-Josée Perec and Teddy Riner) … and, as it turned out, neither the cauldron itself, a ring of fire carried by a hot air balloon, was up in the air.
The special edition for the Paris Olympics is intended as a homage to the first flight, which took place in a hydrogen gas balloon created by two French inventors in 1783, instead of the usual ground-based cauldron used in most Summer and Winter Olympics.
At the time, they set off from the Tuileries Garden near the Louvre in central Paris, where the 2024 Olympic cauldron was lit and appeared to float in the sky.
Created by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the cauldron is meant to symbolize liberty, an element of the national slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”.
The ring has a diameter of 7 meters (about 23 feet) and the balloon is 30 meters (about 100 feet) tall and 22 meters (about 72 feet) wide.
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Check out Inquirer Sports’ special coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
